Laugh Often, To Laugh Longest!

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Today’s 30-Second Summary

If you don’t have time to read the whole email today, here are some key takeaways:

• An optimistic outlook serious extends healthy lifespan, but how do we actually get one of those?

  • Today’s main feature makes the case for building it up as a habit from individual moments—first detoothing disasters, and then being able to see the funny side of any situation

  • Sometimes, laughter really is the best medicine (or at least, a very good adjuvant!)

• How would you like your oral hygiene to be 250% better with no extra effort?

  • Today’s sponsor, LIVFRESH, have developed a gel that safely dissolves plaque without harming the teeth or gums. There’s science for it too, so do check out their website for that!

• Today’s featured recipe is a very easy-to-make high protein vegan paneer—higher protein than the traditional version, and without all that saturated fat. It tastes and behaves just the same, so what’s not to love?

Read on to learn more about these things, or click here to visit our archive

A Word To The Wise

Watch and Learn

8 Signs Of Iodine Deficiency You Might Not Expect

Things to watch out for, and how to fix it:

Prefer text? The above video will take you to a 10almonds page with a text-overview, as well as the video!

Psychology Sunday

Putting The Abs Into Absurdity

We’ve talked before about the health benefits of a broadly positive outlook on life:

Optimism Seriously Increases Longevity!

…and we’re very serious about it, but that’s about optimistic life views in general, and today we’re about not just keeping good humor in questionable circumstances, but actively finding good humor in the those moments—even when the moments in question might not be generally described as good!

After all, laughter really can be the best medicine, for example:

The effect of laughter yoga exercises on anxiety and sleep quality in patients suffering from Parkinson's disease

From the roots

First a quick recap on de-toothing the psychological aspect of threats, no matter how menacing they may be:

Hello, Emotions: Time For Radical Acceptance!

…which we can then take a step further:

What’s The Worst That Could Happen?

Choose your frame

Do you remember when that hacker hacked and publicized the US Federal no-fly list, after already hacking a nationwide cloud-based security camera company, getting access to more than 150,000 companies’ and private individuals’ security cameras, amongst various other cyber crimes, mostly various kinds of fraud and data theft?

Imagine how she (age 21) must have felt, when being indicted. What do you suppose this hacker had to say for itself under such circumstances?

…the latter half of which, usually rendered “but I stay silly” or “but we stay silly” has since entered popular Gen-Z parlance, usually after expressing some negative thing, often in a state of powerlessness.

Which is an important life skill if powerlessness is something that is often likely.

It’s important for many Gen-Zs with negligible life prospects economically; it’s equally important for 60-somethings getting cancer diagnoses (statistically the most likely decade to find out one has cancer, by the way), and many other kinds of people younger, older, and in between.

Because at the end of the day, we all start powerless and we all end powerless.

Learned helplessness (two kinds)

In psychology, “learned helplessness” occurs when a person or creature gives up after learning that all and any attempts to resist a Bad Thing™ fail, perhaps even badly. A lab rat may just shut down and sit there getting electroshocked, for example. A person subjected to abuse may stop trying to improve their situation, and just go with the path of least resistance.

But, there’s another kind, wherein someone in a position of absolute powerlessness not only makes their peace with that, but also, decides that the one thing the outside world can’t control, is how they take it. Like the hacker we mentioned earlier.

Sometimes the gallows humor is even more literal, laughing at one’s own impending death. Not as a matter of bravado, but genuinely seeing the funny side.

But how?

Unfortunately, fortunately

The trick here is to “find a silver lining” that is nowhere near enough to compensate for the bad thing—and it may even be worse! But that’s fine:

“Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to do the dishes before leaving for my vacation. Fortunately, I also forgot to turn the oven off, so the house burning down covered up my messy kitchen”

This kind of silly little thing, on a daily basis, builds a very solid habit for life that allows one to see the funny side in even the most absurd situations, even matters of life and death (can confirm: been there enough times personally—so far so good, still alive to find the remembered absurdity silly).

The point is not to genuinely value the “silver lining”, because half the time it isn’t even one, really, and it is useless to pretend, in seriousness.

But to pretend in silliness? Now we’re onto something, and the real benefit is in the laughs we had along the way.

Because those worst moments? Are probably when we need it the most, so it’s good to get some practice in!

Want more ways to find the funny and make it a life habit?

We reviewed a good book recently:

The Humor Habit: Rewire Your Brain To Stress Less, Laugh More, And Achieve More’er – by Paul Osincup

Stay silly!

Our Sponsors Make This Publication Possible

Oral Health, 250% Better!

LIVFRESH’s patented edathamil-based dental gel does something ordinary toothpaste doesn’t: it breaks down plaque on the molecular level, leaving your teeth themselves (and your gums) unharmed. So much better than scraping!

That “250% better” claim? Science was done to it, and it outperformed leading brand toothpastes by that much.

Which, given what a difference good oral hygiene makes to overall health, is a pretty big deal—with far-reaching implications for your heart, brain, and more.

So, treat yourself to the best:

Please do visit our sponsors—they help keep 10almonds free

You May Have Missed

• Curiosity Kills The Neurodegeneration

• How To Nap Like A Pro (No More “Sleep Hangovers”!)

• Health Hacks from 20 Doctors, Each With A Different Specialization

This Or That?

Vote on Which is Healthier

Yesterday we asked you to choose between cilantro and parsley—it was close, but we picked the parsley (click here to read about why), as did 59% of you!

Now for today’s choice:

Click on whichever you think is better for you!

Recipes Worth Sharing

High-Protein Paneer

Paneer (a kind of Desi cheese used in many recipes from that region) is traditionally very high in fat, mostly saturated. Which is delicious, but not exactly the most healthy.

Today we’ll be making a plant-based paneer that does exactly the same jobs (has a similar texture and gentle flavor, takes on the flavors of dishes in the same way, etc) but with a fraction of the fat (of which only a trace amount is saturated, in this plant-based version), and even more protein:

Click below for our full recipe, and discover how easy it is:

Bonus (Sponsored) Recommendation

One-Minute Book Review

Self-Compassion: The Proven Power of Being Kind to Yourself – by Dr. Kristin Neff

A lot of people struggle with self-esteem, and depending on one’s surrounding culture, it can even seem socially obligatory to be constantly valuing oneself highly (or else, who else will if we do not?). But, as Dr. Neff points out, there’s an inherent problem with reinforcing for oneself even a positive message like “I am smart, strong, and capable!” because sometimes all of us have moments of being stupid, weak, and incapable (occasionally all three at once!), which places us in a position of having to choose between self-deceit and self-deprecation, neither of which are good.

Instead, Dr. Neff advocates for self-compassion, for treating oneself as one (hopefully) would a loved one—seeing their/our mistakes, weaknesses, failures, and loving them/ourself anyway.

She does not, however, argue that we should accept just anything from ourselves uncritically, but rather, we identify our mistakes, learn, grow, and progress. So not “I should have known better!”, nor even “How was I supposed to know?!”, but rather, “Now I have learned a thing”.

The style of the book is quite personal, as though having a heart-to-heart over a hot drink perhaps, but the format is organized and progresses naturally from one idea to the next, taking the reader to where we need to be.

Bottom line: if you have trouble with self-esteem (as most people do), then that’s a trap that there is a way out of, and it doesn’t require being perfect or lowering one’s standards, just being kinder to oneself along the way—and this book can help inculcate that.

Click here to check out Self-Compassion, and indeed be kind to yourself!

Penny For Your Thoughts?

Wishing you a day full of things to smile about,

The 10almonds Team